Numbers Not Enough To Form Govt; Talks On With Others To Gain Majority.
Germany’s mainstream parties have long said they would not work with AfD, which is classified by Germany’s domestic intelligence agency as an extremist group in some regions of the country — including the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt. The AfD candidate for governor, Ulrich Siegmund, aims to become the first far-right head of a state govt and has said he will reach out to all other parties and individual lawmakers to assemble a governing majority. Any dealing by mainstream parties with AfD is particularly sensitive in view of Germany’s Nazi past.
The far-left BSW reaffirmed its readiness to play kingmaker after it cleared the 5% threshold to enter Saxony-Anhalt’s state parliament.
Schulze said the mainstream parties’ refusal to work with AfD was “undemocratic”. “We’ve made no secret from the beginning that we’ll talk with all parties. AfD became the biggest opposition party in parliament after Merz’s party upheld the firewall and formed an unpopular coalition with the centre-left Social Democrats.
In Germany’s election last year, AfD achieved the best performance by a far-right party since World War II and became the strongest political force in parts of the country. AfD is part of that,” Thomas Schulze, BSW party’s lead candidate in the Saxony-Anhalt state election, said on Monday.